


Rules

by TehRaincoat



Series: Bounty Hunted [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, between canon interactions, in-series speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 13:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16833568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehRaincoat/pseuds/TehRaincoat
Summary: The first rule of combat is to win in your mind before you’ve even stepped foot on the field of battle.





	Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Canon-compliant musings

**I**

In her ceremonial dress she must shuffle one hundred steps, no more and no less, forward before she comes to her knees and gracefully lifts her hands before her to bow to her father. Lo and Li have said so. They practice together day in and day out until Azula is perfect. Not a hair out of place. Her small frame strains under her heavy robes but her father smiles just slightly when she bows to him at the official ceremony and she feels her heart flutter in her breast.

Mother is resplendent in crimson and gold beside her, and she can see the trailing of her long sleeves out of the corner of her eye, shimmering in the light of the torches and fires that surround them.

“She will make a beautiful bride when that day comes,” her father says. Azula feels the words twist in her guts, because she doesn’t want to think of that day, or any day that means she will become like mother. She wants to be strong; a warrior like father. But that is later, and this is now, and now she must bow again and receive the traditional talisman. She is seven years old and she already has one from when she was five. Her next one will come when she is nine, not pale pink jade like the one she now holds in her hands, but sunstone. All of these will be worn with official regalia until she is married.

This is the rule.

**II**

The first rule of combat is to win in your mind before you’ve even stepped foot on the field of battle. She hears her Uncle Iroh say it to Lu Ten while she spies on their sparring sessions.

Her father has said plenty of times that listening to what Iroh has to say is foolish at best. He’s not a true warrior. 

Uncle Iroh has talent, though. Even at seven-and-a-half she can see this. He’s one of the best firebenders she’s ever seen, and though she would never admit it to her father, she thinks it is possible that Iroh is even better than him.

She would get a slap if she said it out loud. So she lies to her father, and tells him that he’s the only one she would ever want to train under anyway when he takes her out of her tutelage with Captain Lifen and starts to train her himself. He says that it’s because Lifen is going away to fight in the war under her uncle’s command. Lifen is good too; hard, ruthless, gives no quarter, but there’s something missing in her form that Azula has only ever seen in her uncle’s and so she watches, and she learns.

He’s talented but so is she. She’s heard plenty of adults whisper that she is a prodigy by now. She looked the word up in the dictionary the first time that she was given a moment to herself. Her chest swells pridefully with the meaning even now.

He’s talented and so is she, and he’s had at least fourty-five more years to train than she has, assuming he started training as early as she did. She sets herself a challenge to be better than Iroh by the time she is grown. She refuses to disappoint herself.

There are many that look down on her father for putting her into lessons so young, but Azula is happy for the distraction. Following her mother’s skirts about the palace and listening to her coo over Zuko is only boring, and she hates to follow all of the rules and she would much rather be on the practice grounds where she can be herself and no one will blame her for it or tell her that she’s being bad. Lo and Li always watch her, but they’ve never said anything of detriment.

She has grown to find that she likes the old women best when they are silent.

**III**

The Fire Nation Academy for Girls has several policies that must be adhered to at all times, but Azula has always been good at getting around them when she needs to. Like tonight, for instance. She has gathered her relatively new friends at her side (though she’s played with Mai since she can remember), and they are eating the treats that she palmed from the kitchen earlier in the day when the cook wasn’t looking.

Young girls are not to indulge in too many sweets lest they lose their figures, but Azula’s never been particularly worried about that. She burns too much energy on the day to day in Firebending alone, not to mention the more mandatory exercise that’s mandated by the school’s regimen. A daily promenade through the gardens. A swim in the late afternoon. Games after classes have officially ended that must be of a physical nature before the girls are allowed to retire to their evening meals and then their beds.

She’s keenly aware that she never thought she would make something akin to actual friends at this school (allies, perhaps, and certainly little followers willing to do her bidding, since it’s so popular to hang off of royalty amongst the social elite, but true friends? She’d been as surprised as the next person).

“Wow Azula these sweets are so good, how did you find them,” Ty Lee asks, and Azula shrugs. She’s always had a nose for sweet things, though she would never admit it. She does prefer savoury, of course, but on occasion she does love to indulge.

“It’s not like they keep them under lock and key, and besides these were the leftovers.” None of the pastries were perfect, which meant they would have gone to the staff and not the girls anyway. Most of the matronly staff could stand _not_ to indulge.

The sound of one of the teachers’ footsteps can be heard down the hall, and Azula lifts a hand, calling the fire away from the candles to snuff the light and hide their disobedience. The steps slow in the hall, and she waits, ready to spring to her bed if she hears the latch give on the door, but it doesn’t, and the footsteps continue down the hall a moment later.

“I’m going to bed.” Mai’s sullen tone just barely carries to the other two through the dark, and there’s a shuffling as she climbs into her cot, pulling the sheets over her head.

Azula scowls but lets her be, closing the lid on the box she’s put the sweets to rest in and sliding it under her own mattress before also moving to go to sleep.

“I suppose Mai is right. We do have to get up early tomorrow. There will be a religious rite at dawn and they want us all to be there,” Azula allowed.

Ty Lee moves silently to her own corner of the room, and the three fall quickly into slumber.

**IV**

“Do not speak unless spoken to,” her mother instructs, almost breathless, and reaches forward to smooth some of Azula’s more unruly strands of hair out of her face. “Do not make eye contact. Bow, be polite, show your deference.”

Sullen, the eight year old nods at her mother. Their grandfather is old and cranky, and has never really liked to see them. From what she has observed, she thinks that this is possibly because her father is not his favourite son. She’s not certain why this is the case, just as she is not certain why mother seems to prefer Zuko over her, but she thinks that perhaps it has something to do with both Zuko and Iroh being the elder of two siblings and not the younger.

She might have been born lucky, but Azula thinks that it’s decidedly unlucky to be the second born.

It’s the rule; though certainly her father’s favouring her seemed to be the exception to the rule. She’s not complaining. She likes that he takes an interest in her, that he doesn’t punish her for following her more cruel instincts when they strike her. Mother always looks worried or disapproving, and she longs for the smile of approval from the older woman that she only ever seems to get from father.

At least it’s equal. He never seems to smile at Zuko just like mother never seems to smile at her.

It’s against the rules to stay behind and hear what her grandfather has to say. She does it anyway. She’s always been good at spying, and she doesn’t see why she should have to stop now. She wants to know what’s going on. Sometimes it’s the only way to avoid an unexpected slap.

**V**

She can taunt Zuko but she’s not allowed to physically injure him. Father made as much clear before he sent her away to do his bidding. Azula is a little resentful about it, but she thinks that father must want to do it himself. They’ve given Zuko more than enough time to fulfill his task, and he’s only failed them time and again.

The embarrassment to the family is beginning to get out of hand. Her father believes his reign to be tenuous, though he would never admit as much to her or to anyone, and Azula cannot necessarily disagree. There’s always going to be dissent among the masses, especially with a military draft in place, but there are ways around it, and not letting Zuko make more of a fool of the family than he already has is a good place to start.

He’s always been so naively earnest when it comes to wanting the approval of his family. That’s why it’s so laughably easy to lure him back, and with him comes the real prize. 

Iroh.

She might have been less embarrassed if it hadn’t been so many years between when The Dragon of the West was last a warrior and now, but her fat, cheerful, uncle bests her just as she tries to fire a warning shot at her brother. She wouldn’t have killed him, no. That’s the rule, after all…But this distraction is just enough to allow Zuzu to get away…

And Iroh too, in the end.

She pushes herself up from the deck of the ship with a look of ire in her eye, ready to throttle the first man that comes over to her. She doesn’t, but she feels like doing it.

The men see the intent in her eyes and don’t dare come close.

Making them more fearful of her than necessary could hurt her in the long run. Azula breathes deep and presses down on her anger, letting the ember at the center of her chest burn white hot as she lets out a steaming breath and gets to her feet.

**VI**

Win in your mind before you step foot on the battlefield.

She can barely think even as she drops the heavy cloak from her shoulders and stumbles down the steps toward her brother where he stands a lonely figure in the middle of the empty square. No one has come for her coronation, but then how could they? There’s a final battle going on and all of the men are needed to fight and any of the staff who might have come as a consolation prize (to see her receive _her_ consolation prize), she has shipped off to the colonies for their insubordination.

She’s never felt more alone than in this moment. She’s never felt more unhinged.

There have been moments, of course. Little pieces of her mind here and there that have fracture off temporarily in the past when she looks at herself in the mirror or tries to make a connection with someone, anyone, who isn’t her father or those he’s assigned to be her keepers. Now she knows that she is going mad, and she’s not nearly as frightened as she ought to be.

She’s already won this battle in her mind a thousand times, and agreeing to finally fight an Agni Kai with Zuko is only the inevitable outcome of the years of rivalry stretched out between them.

For an insane moment she thinks that what she actually wants to do is reach out to her brother and cling to him in desperation. Maybe if she just stops now and ends their rivalry she can come out of this in one piece.

Her desire to please father is still stronger than her desire for someone to relate to. She shoots a roaring plume of fire at him instead. A dragon releasing her breath onto the battle ground.


End file.
